by Yet there isn’t a show in sport that can compete with Stephen Curry on a heater. At 35, the Warriors superstar is as electrifying as ever, and he was back on Wednesday with 50 points against the Clippers.
Still, the Warriors lost 134-126 in Los Angeles, dropping their road record to an embarrassing 7-27. The Warriors have now lost nine straight games on the road, where they are 21-0 down after three quarters.
Even writing these numbers, it’s almost impossible to believe. And yet the Warriors still cling to the Western Conference No. 6 here, a game ahead in the Seeds’ 7-9 loss column. Not much room for error, but if that 6-seed went for Golden State, it might actually be a blessing in disguise that they’ve ceded this game to the Clippers.
As it stands, the Warriors would go up against the No. 3 Grizzlies instead of the Suns in the first round. However, Golden State has 12 games left, which feels like a season in itself given how close the Western Conference rankings come into play on Thursday.
The warriors cannot engage in strategic seeding. They have to win every game they can to stay above the play-in line or, frankly, even get into the postseason. They’re just two games away from a lottery spot in the losing column, and now it looks like they’ll have to play the Hawks with Draymond Green on Friday, the second stop on a potentially season-changing five-game road trip.
Green was whistled on Wednesday for his 16th technical foul of the season. If the league doesn’t lift it, it’s a one-game ban.
This means Curry may have to go onto another heater on Friday to give the Warriors a shot at winning their first road game since January. Don’t rule it out. This guy has been on fire since pretty much 2013 and the shots he snapped on Wednesday were once again of the “can’t be serious” sort.
I mean what is this?
Curry went totally nuclear with 21 points in the third quarter, the 44th 20-point quarter of his career. Just sit back and enjoy this 35 year old freak show that turns another NBA arena into a theater of the absurd.
Curry now has over 10,000 career points with 3 pointers alone. It’s his second 50-point game of the season and 12th of his career, which is 10th all-time. Seven of those 50 tracks have come after turning 30, which is one more than Michael Jordan and has been associated with Wilt Chamberlain for the longest time.
And the craziest thing? Only two of Curry’s points came at the free throw line. This is the anti-James Harden. This is pure bucket that gets people on their feet. Curry finished 20 out of 28 overall, including 8 out of 14 out of 3. What he can do with a basketball is absolutely ridiculous.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, Curry can’t dominate a game defensively or on the boards where the Clips murdered them on offensive glass Wednesday. Steve Kerr played small with Jonathan Kuminga and Green as the “big ones” on the course, and they couldn’t end possession with a board. The Clippers got second shot after second, which was too much for an already thinned Golden State defense unit.
No, Andrew Wiggins is a massive problem for the Warriors trying to survive with the likes of Curry, Jordan Poole and Donte DiVincenzo guarding Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, then trying to fend off Ivica Zubac on top of that. Russell Westbrook beat the Warriors on multiple offensive boards that went straight to buckets.
If Wiggins doesn’t come back for the playoffs, Kerr may have to consider closing with Kevon Looney. But first things first: Golden State has to make the playoffs. As close as this race is, they could end up somewhere between 4th and the lottery and it wouldn’t come as a shock. Somehow I doubt Curry will let them fall out entirely, but as we saw Wednesday, there’s only so much one man can do.
